Scorsese walks away

The Departed director turns his back on big budgets and heads for Indieville

It’s slightly ironic that distinguished lenser Martin Scorsese loves to frame a scene with the gnawing guitar of The Rolling Stones. Both director and band are hugely respected but it’s their back catalogues that the majority of the public tend to relate to.

However it seems ol’ monobrow has exorcised that demon with his powerhouse Boston gang hit, The Departed, and now he’s got the cinema-going public by the unmentionables, he’s thinking of walking away.

“When there are very big budgets there is less risk that can be taken,” Scorsese said at the Rome Film Festival. He pointed out that his desire to crank out some low-budget flicks didn’t have anything to do with his experience on his last project.

“Warner’s were supportive on an experimental film like The Departed, which we only finished three weeks ago.”

The helmer’s first foray into indie film would be a re-working of the Japanese novel, The Silence. The tale, scribbled by Shusaku Endo, centres on two 17th century Portuguese missionaries.